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Hotel Grinnell in Grinnell, Iowa is an elegant boutique hotel where old school tradition merges with new school attitude.  Grinnell is known as the Jewel of the Prairie, as it is loaded with some of Iowa's best independent retaurants and unique shops.  It has been named as one of the Top Ten Coolest Small Towns in America by travel journalists.

As you walk through the halls and staircases of Hotel Grinnell, you might suddenly get the urge that you’re running late for class.  But don’t worry, you won’t be docked any points for waking up late here. The building actually served as the town’s junior high school from 1921 until 1978. In 1978, the school sold it to the city.

Hotel Grinnell is now open as a socially-distanced gathering space for off-campus Grinnell College students. 

Hotel Grinnell, Grinnell, Iowa: Inside a revamped 1921 junior high school are 52 rooms and suites designed for couples (with heated tubs for two) to groups (10-bed bunk rooms). Room keys look like a hall pass. Accommodations, which used to be classrooms, are furnished with original art and iron beds made locally.

The past year has forced independent hoteliers to manage every penny and operate leaner than ever before, and sources said 2021 budgets will be about prioritizing only ROI-guaranteed items.

On Nov. 1, Hotel Grinnell — located about an hour east of Des Moines — will be the new home for a pop-up restaurant, Cilino’s. Cilino’s will temporarily replace the hotel's current restaurant, The Periodic Table, for six months.

Iowa offers experiences that you cannot find elsewhere, and I’m thrilled to share this road trip with you. This road trip offers experiences all year long, but summertime is my favorite time to make this trip. 

Every year, the Boutique Community honors the finest in the industry at the Stay Boutique Conference. Founded in 2010, this is one of the highest honor to receive in the Boutique Community.

Once a junior high school, Hotel Grinnell is a chic and modern luxury hotel that has earned an A+ in our grade book. Located just an hour’s drive east of Des Moines, Iowa, Hotel Grinnell melds its literal old school history with innovative designs and amenities for today’s contemporary traveler.

The more you travel to big destinations and famous cities, the harder it gets to appreciate them. You can’t really hate on world-class chefs and major league sports, but after you’ve lugged your suitcase up enough subway stairs and drained your bank account on $18 cocktails, you start thinking that small towns might have just as much to offer. And, for short stays, many of them do.

Learn how this boutique property in Iowa 'Surprises and Delights' its guests and community with the help of text messaging.

The green hotel features 43 guest rooms, plus two bunk rooms, and a penthouse suite. A boardroom, ballroom, auditorium, and outdoor patio accommodate events. There's also an in-house fitness center. Hotel Grinnell's eco-friendliness begins with the building. It's a former 1921 limestone junior high school, kept much the same on the outside except for the addition of modern windows.

In 2009, the self-described ‘serial entrepreneur’ Angela Harrington arrived in Grinnell, Iowa, wanting to reinvent herself. After the economic crash the previous year, the Denver native moved to Grinnell and accepted a position with the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. However, her first marching orders from the board required tapping into her entrepreneur past and would result in one of her, and Grinnell’s, proudest accomplishments.

Hotel Grinnell is a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel in downtown Grinnell, Iowa. This is by far the most unique hotel I’ve ever stayed in. That’s because it was once a junior high school, and instead of gutting the building, its owners, Steve Holtze and Angela Harrington, decided to embrace the building’s scholastic past.

If the summer got away from you before your family could get away, don't think it's too late to channel those vacation vibes. Finally, you have permission to be a tourist in (or near) your own town.

A popular Iowa college town offers visitors a peaceful, quiet visit with interesting things to do and great pizza.

The Hotel Grinnell in Grinnell Iowa, is located in what was a former junior high school building that dates back to 1921.  The school was in operation until the late 1970’s but has now been transformed into a modern hotel with 43 bedrooms and suites, a restaurant and bar, a ballroom and a theatre!

The hotel lives up to its claim of being “Upscale in style. Laid back in spirit.” The schoolhouse theme is ever-so-subtle, starting with a “Hall Pass” keycard holder, blackboard and red apple in every room.

“Old School” has a whole new meaning when it comes to the Hotel Grinnell!  Across from Central Park in Grinell, Iowa, you’ll find an old school that has been beautifully restored and renovated into a boutique hotel!  Owners Angela & Steve have painstakingly turned this historic building into a place you’ll want to come back to again and again. 

Often traveled, not always fully appreciated, the Iowa leg of Interstate 80 might not stand out as one of the most exciting moments of a cross-country road trip, but that's only if you don't know where to stop.

Iowa Economic Development Authority has awarded The Highlander Hotel located in Iowa City, Iowa and Hotel Grinnell in Grinnell, Iowa Targeted Small Business certificates.  Out of 800+ Targeted Small Businesses in the state of Iowa, Hotel Grinnell and The Highlander Hotel are the only two in the lodging category.

We’ve never taken so many pictures of a hotel. Everything about the Hotel Grinnell was so unique and well thought out, though, that we wanted to capture everything! It’s the best hotel we stayed at during our road trip across Iowa and probably one of the most unique places to stay in Iowa. We loved everything about it!

Located about 50 miles east of Des Moines, Grinnell is a pleasant little community of fewer than 10,000 people about 10 miles off of I-80. That population gets a small boost from the 1500 students at Grinnell College, a private liberal arts school.

As you walk through the halls and staircases of Hotel Grinnell, you might suddenly get the urge that you’re running late for class.

But don’t worry, you won’t be docked any points for waking up late here. The building actually served as the town’s junior high school from 1921 until 1978. In 1978, the school sold it to the city, which then used it for office space.

Located within walking distance of Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa is one of the best hotels in the state.

Adolescence doesn’t usually factor into hospitality projects. But for Iowa’s Hotel Grinnell, Perkins + Will transformed a former junior high into a unique hotel that pays homage to the site’s history.

We were invited to come and stay at the Hotel Grinnell, in Grinnell Iowa.This hotel is in a converted school house, so has a homeschooling family, this piqued our interest. And we ended up working a visit to Grinnell into our Fall Foliage road trip, to take in the sites at Lookout Mountain, Grafton Illinois, and Hannibal Missouri among others!

Angela Harrington received Iowa Rural Development Council's Impact on Place honor for her work developing Hotel Grinnell, a converted 97-year-old junior high school in the city, according to a release.

You’ll want to be kept after class at the Hotel Grinnell, a boutique hotel that just happens to have taken over an old junior high school building.

It started with a request from the Grinnell Business Community, "We need an events center..." What they got was the Hotel Grinnell a re-purposed 1921 school building in the heart of the town of 10,000.

GRINNELL, Iowa  --  For weeks, Angela Harrington had been getting the same question: when would the Hotel Grinnell open?

Inside an old school building constructed in 1921 is Hotel Grinnell. Throughout the halls and inside the 43 rooms you’ll spot nods to the history like “Hall Passes” for room keys as well as school themed rooms with gym floors and chalkboards.

Hotel Grinnell is a 45-room boutique hotel that includes a 300 seat ballroom, a 450 seat auditorium, a lobby bar and outdoor patio. The project is an adaptive reuse of the city’s 1921 Junior High School in the center of downtown Grinnell.  

Walking up the front steps of the newly opened Hotel Grinnell, it feels like you’re walking into a school building. That’s because you are. Built in 1921, the structure in the heart of Grinnell has served as a junior high, city hall and a church before being converted over the last year into a luxury hotel.

Iowa is home to several unique and historic hotels. Once you set foot in one of these unique hotels, you will find yourself immersed in the experience. 

Hope is on the horizon for Hotel Grinnell now that all of its rooms have been reserved ahead of Grinnell College’s upcoming graduation, potentially signaling an end to a year that has been defined by anxiety, waiting and empty rooms.